This article was inspired and written upon realizing that my Blazer is 5 years old.
By Brent Hoefling AKA RamboPreacher PoG#6- "A Player, Not A Pro"
Okay, put your time machine hat on and go back with me to 1994. This is the year that I was invited to be on a paintball team, even though the team captain had never seen me actually play. This is the year that the Evolution Cocker was voted best semi of the year. There was a great article about playing paintball in an issue of “Women & Guns” magazine. If I am not mistaken, I believe that was the year that Lemmings Paintball game came out. Bill and Dawn Mills had their picture taken with Glenn Palmer (and others).
I had become a Palmer Pursuit Shop fan at that time. I had PPS build me a couple upgrades from old Sheridan pumper’s that I had laying around. I had been using an original PF 68Automag, but when I got my first stroker, I fell in love with the craftsmanship and reliability of the marker. (Not to mention that it wasn’t as easy to turn into a paint-blender).
Turn the clock up a couple years, and get a couple more years of paintball under my belt. Have upgraded to Typhoon by now and my “collection” of PPS markers has begun to grow. It has been said that “around here”, says a local teammate, “if you have a Palmer marker, then you have `200’, if you don’t have a Palmer marker, then you probably never heard of them”. Late 1995, and early 1996, there were rumors that PPS had something special coming up.
By mid-1996, I had heard about the Blazer project and had put in my request for a pre-order. I was ready to send the money to him, sight unseen and not even having seen even the prototype yet. I had by now, developed a “working relationship” with PPS and though they really weren’t taking pre-orders, I was assured that I would be getting one of the first ones (but SN#007 had already been reserved).
I don’t remember for sure if it was December 1996 or January of 1997 when they started taking orders and payments for Blazers. I do know that I had sent my money in as soon as I knew they were taking payments. (Of course I tried to keep my “finger on the pulse” of the status of the Blazer, so I am sure my payment was one of the first.)
When I received the package, it wasn’t long before I was in the basement chronograph station and popping off some rounds. You can read about my initial testing and review at http://www.pentestone.com/paintball/blazer.html.
From that day until now, this day of April 22, 2002, and for as long as I can foresee, That Blazer has been and will be my personal favorite and my primary paintball marker. Love is not normally a word I use in describing an inanimate object, but it comes close when I talk about my Blazer. I have been told that you can see it in my eyes when I get the opportunity to talk about Charity (her name. I give names to most of my markers and all the ones I use regularly).
The first real change I made to Charity was when I ran across some original Sheridan wooden grip panels. I didn’t know what a find I had made until later, but these are apparently pretty rare, and very beautiful. She has been through a couple stocks. The Doc Nickel P-Stock is what she is wearing currently. I also had her go through several changes of stabilizer setups.
My first stab for her was a vertical setup. It lasted a while, but in 2000 I went to Splat-1 tournament with Team Palmerized and not wanting to cause any hot-gun penalties, I went to a dual setup; a vertical and a ring-mount bottom-line. When I got back and through that paintball season, I came to realize that I didn’t need two stabs for my Charity. I removed the vertical and left the ring mount bottom-line because it felt like it had the best balance with the stock I was using. I still use that stab setup several tournaments later, and even today.
I have been through several barrels for Charity. Firstly, It came with a 12” Brass barrel that worked great and shot straight as a LASER. However when I went to Splat-1 with Palmerized, I saw a barrel there that Craig had originally made for his “Tempest”, but then went with a barrel sleeve (I think because it matched better). I sold that barrel for a deal I couldn’t refuse, and since I still had my 12” brass barrel, it was not big deal. A friend of mine gave me a 8” “shorty” BOA barrel that is great for close-quarters shooting in speedball. I had somehow lost my 12” brass one day when I was using the BOA, so just kept using the BOA. It worked okay, was just a bit gas-hoggy.
When I went to the Splat-1 tourney (this time playing for the CPPA, team G.A.G.G.), I went ahead and bought another longer barrel. This time I have a black powder coated 10” barrel, closer resembling a stock barrel. This one is great and is now my primary barrel. I still have the BOA, but it is in my field-box.
A couple years ago, Jason, a teammate and I were talking and he had told me that the threads on the front block of a cocker and the ASA retaining bolt for the Blazer were the same. We then discussed the possibility of replacing that bolt with a cocker LP chamber. Sure enough, a bit of dremmeling and finding the right size o-rings and it works. Got the operating pressure down to less than 400psi (remember this is the original blazer that didn’t have the HVLP built in. Originally, it required something over 500 psi to operate.
After some learning and tinkering, I discovered what many already knew; making a paintball marker to run at a lower pressure doesn’t necessarily do anything to increase performance. I started experimenting and discovered that I could modify the ASA a little and the ASA retaining bolt and I could increase the efficiency of Charity and as a result, it runs at a lower pressure without the HVLP chamber. I went ahead and left it on because it makes it unique looking. However, since I have apparently made it so popular, the HVLP chamber on the Blazer trick is becoming more commonplace, making my Charity, not so unique any more. (I may have to take it back off if I see any more of these setup’s)
Fortunately, another thing I had done to maker her unique, but did nothing to performance was to add a tiny gauge to the back of the rock regulator. Since there was (and still isn’t) no gauge that was small enough in diameter to directly screw in the back, I had added a standard NPT angle and put the gauge on it. The angle piece was a special one. I had to look for just the right type that would allow the spring to take seat on the angle piece and not go inside the neck of the angle itself. This proved to be more of a task than I had originally planned. I still don’t remember where I got the piece. It just showed up in my box-o’ parts one day.
Another incarnation that I had done to modify my Charity was to add a power feed adapter to enable the hopper to sit more on top of the marker rather than off to the side. This was one of the more dramatic modifications, because now I had to actually cut part of the DF tube down on the blazer itself. This was a big deal fro me because by now Charity has become a very special paintball marker to me and I did not want to ruin her. Very carefully, I used the dremmel to cut down the tube. I had to take some good measurements because when installing the PF, you need to take into account the balls that are in the stack and the fact that you don't want to pinch one when closing the PF. After cutting a little more off, several times (you can cut a little more off, but you can't "cut it back on"), I got it right.
Early on, I had added the cut and polished nickel sight hood with “CHARITY” engraved on the side. I am not sure where that idea came from. I am pretty sure it wasn’t mine. I think it was one of my teammates, but it has become a popular addition to many Palmer owners’ markers now.
There you have it; the short-story of the beginning, life and current use of my Charity.